Brazil's Senate Votes to Remove President Rousseff From Office Over Financial Suspicions

After an emotionally charged, late-night debate, the Brazilian Senate voted Wednesday to remove suspended President Dilma Rousseff from office for fiscal irregularities, a move she said amounted to an illegal coup.

The 61-20 vote capped a year-long power struggle between Rousseff's long-governing leftist government and opposition senators and comes less than two weeks after the Rio Olympics, which highlighted Brazil but also put the country's economic and political woes on international display.

The Senate suspended Rousseff in May on charges that she used illegal budgetary maneuvers to hide the extent of the country's financial problems. Brazil's once-booming economy slumped into a deep recession after a global slowdown sent prices plummeting for commodities it exports to the world.

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Opponents of the 68-year-old Rousseff, a former guerrilla fighter, charged that she broke the law in manipulating the government budget to preserve popular social programs that bolstered her re-election in 2014.